Method and apparatus to convert a minimally controlled pulse stream into a proper mechatronic trajectory

Abstract

An apparatus or method which accepts a burst of pulses at a frequency which may not be tightly controlled and converts this into a trajectory command that is a suitable motion profile for an incremental motor control application. The output of the invention can be a pulse stream that can be fed to an existing incremental pulse input motor drive or the invention can be embedded into a motor drive where its output is a numerical sequence that defines a physically realizable trajectory to be fed to the control circuits and software within the motor drive.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A device comprising:
 an incremental pulse input for receiving incoming incremental pulses at an average rate; 
 an input accumulator coupled to the incremental pulse input; 
 a trajectory regulator for coupling to a motor, having an input coupled to the input accumulator, an output accumulator, and a position command output representing an accumulated value in the output accumulator; and 
 a position command output coupled to the trajectory regulator; 
 wherein:
 the input accumulator stores pulses received at the incremental pulse input; 
 the trajectory regulator removes position increments from the input accumulator and adds them to a value in the output accumulator at an average rate below the average rate of the incoming incremental pulse input until the input accumulator becomes empty; and 
 the position command output of the trajectory regulator, representing the value in the output accumulator, is used to command the motion of a motor. 
 
 
     
     
       2. The device of  claim 1  integrated into a motor drive. 
     
     
       3. The device of  claim 1  where the trajectory regulator limits the rate of change of transfer from the input accumulator and the output accumulator. 
     
     
       4. The device of  claim 1  where the trajectory regulator begins transferring to the output accumulator immediately upon receipt of pulses on the incremental pulse input. 
     
     
       5. The device of  claim 1  where the trajectory regulator begins adding to the output accumulator after a trigger is received from a separate source. 
     
     
       6. The device of claim one where the trajectory regulator begins adding to the output accumulator only after pulses on the incremental pulse input have ceased for a period of time. 
     
     
       7. The device of  claim 1  where the incremental pulse input is comprised of at least one of the following: step and direction signals, a two phase quadrature input, a count-up/count down input pair, or count-up and count-down signals. 
     
     
       8. The device of  claim 1  where the output is a series of incremental pulses generated by the operation of the trajectory regulator in at least one of the following formats: step pulses plus a direction signal, count-up pulses plus count-down pulses, a quadrature set of pulse signals.